The Role of the Ideal Level of the Soul in Establishing the Soul-Body Relation in Mulla Sadra s Philosophy

Unlike his preceding philosophers, Mulla Sadra believes that the distance between the rational soul and the corporeal body is too big to be filled merely with the steam-like soul. In addition to the steam-like soul, he considers the existence of Ideal existence as a link between the rational and corporeal levels to be necessary. Mulla Sadra’s graded view of human existence led him, firstly, to introduce Man as having three supreme (rational), low (material), and mid (Ideal) levels. Secondly, he maintained that Man’s Ideal and imaginal level is the link connecting the two higher and lower levels. In order to explain the place of Ideal level in human existence, he resorts to the principle of the “conformity between the macrocosm and microcosm” and considers the two rational and Ideal levels in the human microcosm to be similar to the Heaven and Throne in the macrocosm. As acknowledged by Mulla Sadra himself, he is greatly influenced by gnostics regarding the discussion of Man’s Ideal level.